Johnson & Johnson Loses Another Asbestos Talcum Powder Trial — Plaintiff Awarded $25.7 Million Verdict
Johnson & Johnson has been slapped with a $25.7 million verdict for its negligence in failing to warn consumers of the potential health risks of using their baby powder. An Oregon woman who developed mesothelioma claimed that she developed the rare form of lung cancer from repeated exposure to Johnson & Johnson baby powder and…
Read MoreCatastrophic Injuries
When there’s been a catastrophic injury, you need to call a lawyer, even if you don’t know that somebody else may have been at fault for it. Maybe the road was defective, maybe there was something that went wrong with the vehicle. There can be all kinds of things that are not obvious at…
Read MoreJury Awards Injured Cyclist Almost $3 Million for Geico’s Bad Faith
When you sign a contract with your insurance company, you do so in good faith. Basically, that means when something goes wrong, you’ll tell the truth; in return, the insurance company will be honest and fair in its assessment – or, so the theory goes. When your insurance company doesn’t treat you fairly within the…
Read MoreBalance Billing – What it is and How it Works
Have you ever made a trip to the emergency room, thought you were covered by insurance, and later received a bill that seemed way too high? Chances are you just got hit with “surprise billing,” otherwise known as balance billing. You’re not alone. Approximately one in five people who visit an ER within their healthcare…
Read MoreCan I Make an Auto Insurance Claim if I’m Hurt as a Pedestrian?
You can make a claim if you’re hurt as a pedestrian against the driver of the other vehicle and their insurance company. You may be surprised to learn that your own automobile insurance will cover you as a pedestrian even if you’re not in your own car. So long as a motor vehicle, an…
Read MoreDefective Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Devices – What You Need to Know
An implantable cardioverter defibrillator device, or ICD, is a miracle device. It’s a little box, powered by a battery, that attaches to your heart and records your heart’s rhythm. If it detects an arrythmia – a change in rhythm – it will send an electrical current to the heart. ICDs are a bit different from…
Read MoreFrank Verderame, Firm Partner
I’ve had the privilege of representing people who have suffered the most scary, catastrophic injuries that you can imagine. From brain injury, to paralysis, burn injuries, death of a family member: It’s always hard to do, especially when you grow to know and love your clients. And that’s been the biggest reward of my career.…
Read MoreUsing Your Health Insurance After a Car Accident
If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Phoenix, you can expect the medical bills to start rolling in pretty quickly. Depending on your injury, these bills could be quite substantial. You probably have a lot of questions. How will these bills get paid? Whose insurance company is responsible—yours or the person who caused…
Read MoreRandall A. Hinsch, Firm Partner
If you’ve ever had, I hope you have had, a chance to help somebody out in a situation, it feels good. It really feels good to help somebody out when they’re being bullied. Insurance companies are multi-billion-dollar bullies. And in our civil justice system, it’s often the case where personal injury lawyers, trial lawyers…
Read MoreYears After Takata Recall, Drivers Still Waiting for New Airbags
The Takata airbag recall is the largest and probably most complex safety recall in United States history. This recall, affecting cars from model years 2002 to 2015, involved a design defect in manufacturer-installed airbags that could deploy in an explosive manner, injuring or killing occupants of the vehicle. An inflator inside the airbag would sometimes…
Read MoreRichard S. Plattner, Firm Partner
Well, I’ve been practicing law; now I’m in my 41st year of doing it. What I love about being a personal injury lawyer for plaintiffs is I get to help people. I don’t represent corporations. I only represent people: fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters who’ve been knocked down and who need a hand to get pulled…
Read MoreFormer Banner Health Nurse Collects $6M in Whistleblower Lawsuits
Cecilia Guardiola, RN, has an impressive resume as a hospital compliance expert. However, recently, she’s been having trouble landing a job. It seems that once hospitals do a background check on Ms. Guardiola, she rarely hears from them again. That may have something to do with the three whistleblower lawsuits she’s filed against former hospitals…
Read MoreNick Verderame, Associate
I like representing injured plaintiffs because it’s a lot of fun. It’s not just fun what we do every day, going to court and making arguments, but it’s fun helping people in a way that impacts their life. Before I was doing this kind of work, I was doing corporate mergers and acquisitions, and it…
Read MoreNuisance Neighbors: NC Judge Awards $50 Million in Lawsuit against Murphy Brown/Smithfield Foods
Despite their reputation, pigs are clean animals. If given enough space, they’ll stay far away from their own waste. They’ll clean off their food if there’s water nearby. And the wallowing in mud? Not only does it cool them down (pigs don’t have sweat glands), but it keeps ticks, lice and other parasites at bay.…
Read MoreBike Safety
Bicycle safety can be a little bit complicated. Normally, bicycles are supposed to follow the same rules of the road that motor vehicles follow. But there are exceptions. In Arizona, for example, a bicycle in a cross walk is covered by the same rules as pedestrians, whether you’re riding your bike or walking your bike.…
Read MoreWhistleblowers Prevail in $11.4 Million Qui Tam Claim with Genetics Testing Company
On March 5, 2018, Natera Inc. settled with the U.S. government for $11.4 million dollars to resolve a qui tam action filed by Sallie McAdoo and Steven Aldridge in January 2015. The qui tam complaint alleges that Natera, a genetic testing laboratory which performed services for which they were reimbursed by several government agencies, submitted…
Read MoreHow to File Sexual Harassment Charges in Phoenix, AZ
Unfortunately in our society, people who have positions of authority take advantage of that authority, and harass employees sexually in the workplace. There are a couple of kinds of claims that can stem from that. First, you can file a claim with the EEOC. That’s a federal government agency, where you could actually get online…
Read MoreJaguar & Waymo Partner to Develop Luxury Self-Driving Car
Waymo, the autonomous car development company, and Jaguar, the luxury vehicle brand, recently announced a partnership to build and outfit up to 20,000 I-PACE fully electric cars over the next three years for their self-driving ride-hail service. The two companies plan to have prototypes on the road in Phoenix by the of the year, and…
Read MoreAre Bars Responsible if They Over Serve a Customer and it Causes an Accident?
Bars can be responsible if they over serve patrons, get them drunk and then an injury happens. It may seem counterintuitive that somebody who’s in the business of serving alcohol, actually is required not to serve too much alcohol, but it’s an important rule in the law because it’s necessary to prevent injury and death…
Read MoreU.S. Government Recovers $66 Million from Japanese Manufacturer of Defective Body Armor
The decade old lawsuit of a former law enforcement officer has facilitated the U.S. government’s re-capture of $66 million from a Japanese manufacturer. Toyobo manufactured and sold bulletproof fiber for bulletproof vests issued to local, state, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies. The fiber was eventually found to be defective. The U.S. Department of Justice…
Read MoreCouple Awarded $117 Million in Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Lawsuit
On April 11, a New Jersey couple was awarded $80 million in punitive damages from Johnson & Johnson and Imerys Talc America. This comes a week after a Middlesex County jury had already awarded Stephen Lanzo $30 million and $7 million to his wife in compensatory damages. Lanzo claims his long-term use of asbestos-contaminated J&J…
Read MoreNine Deaths, Dozens of Injuries, Hundreds of Crashes – and Goodyear Has Known the Entire Time
In 1996, Goodyear started installing the G159 275/70R 22.5 tire – the G159, from here on – on RVs. That same year, the first complaint was made, claiming that the tire failed. To hear Goodyear tell it, there have only been 7 injuries and 58 tire failure reports since 1996. In truth, there have 74…
Read MoreCrash or Accident – Does it Make a Difference Which Word You Use?
With the incredibly high rate of traffic fatalities lately, safety advocates and concerned people have been advocating for a change in what word we use to describe the collision of vehicles on the road. We have used the words, crash, collision, or wreck to describe what has come to be described as a traffic accident.…
Read MoreClarifying the Definition of Whistleblower Anti-Retaliation Protections
In February, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously ruled that the anti-retaliation protections of the Dodd-Frank Act do not kick in until a whistleblower has reported the fraud to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A whistleblower, as the law defines it, is someone who provides information to the SEC (or another federal…
Read MoreSix People Confirmed Dead after a Small Plane Crashed at TPC Scottsdale Champions Golf Course
A small plane crashed at the TPC Scottsdale Champions golf course on Monday night, killing all six people aboard. The Piper PA24 Comanche left Scottsdale Airport for Las Vegas, but crashed soon after take-off. The golf course is less than a mile away from the airport, and the plane burst into flames after crashing. The…
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